It was a golden World Cup opener for Australia’s Laura Peel at the FIS Aerial Skiing event in Ruka, Finland in early December.
The 2019-2020 World Cup Champion and world number one from Canberra had an impressive day, finishing in first place in each stage of the competition, and was the only female competitor to jump triple somersaults.
Peel qualified for finals in first place scoring 88.51 points with a full-full, double twisting double back somersault.
In the first round of finals, Peel increased her degree of difficulty to jump a lay-tuck-full, single twisting triple back somersault scoring a huge 101.28 points, her highest score of the day.
In the super final medal round, Peel added an extra twist to her triple back somersault, performing a full-tuck-full jump scoring 83.87 points to record victory ahead of German Emma Weiss with a score of 80.95 with Russian Anastasiia Prytkova rounding out the podium with 71.53 points.
"It’s amazing to be back on snow competing,” commented Peel after stepping off the podium.
“We’ve had so many question marks surrounding whether or not the season would go ahead, so we’re all stoked to be back out there jumping. Starting the season off with a win is a dream.”
“I didn’t nail the landing on my final jump, but I was pushing the DD and tonight that paid off. I know I can’t rely on that though, so I’m motivated to keep working out all the details in training.
“Last season we started working on my triples with the goal of Beijing 2022 in mind, that’s still the goal and I’m just focusing on doing my best jumps to be as best prepared as I can be when the Olympics roll around.
“I’m really happy with the work that I’ve done on the triple over the last year. I’m also excited to have a bit more time on snow and bring over some of the work from my summer training.
“I am definitely excited to hold on to the leaders bib, any day in yellow is a good day.”
The performance marks the fifth World Cup victory of the 31 year old athletes career (5 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze).
The next stop currently scheduled on the World Cup tour for the aerial skiing athletes will take place in Yaroslavl, Russia, on January 16-17.